episode_0014

The sound filling his ears was a ringing full of noise.

The scene captured by his eyes was a rain of indifferent blue spearheads.

-Blegh

The fishy taste felt in his mouth suggested the loss of life.

-Thud!

Every time he swung the axe to deflect a spear, his muscles tore strand by strand.

-Crash!

His enlarged body collapses without strength.

“Heh heh… damn it.”

Krok, lying sprawled in a pool stained with his own blood, muttered suddenly.

Despite having lived a life of ugliness and fierce struggle, the feeling he felt before dying was emptiness.

That man, who always faced him in battle with a smile.

He withdrew his magic, approached him, and said briefly.

“It seems we had a bad relationship?”

A bad relationship, huh.

Their meeting wasn’t that long, but there’s a flaw in that statement.

It wasn’t just a bad relationship, it was a terribly dog-like bad relationship.

“Cough…! Choke…!”

He tried to speak, but every time he tried to utter a combination of words, blood came gushing out.

Hot and sticky blood felt in his mouth.

It had no taste.

‘Is he trying to toy with me?’

The outcome had already been decided, and he was the loser.

What the victor takes is the opponent’s life.

Seeing him look at him even though he could have ended it, a hollow laugh escaped him.

Is he trying to torment him until just before death and then end it?

Perhaps because he had already concluded that recovery was impossible, he didn’t think he would get very angry even if he did that.

But… feeling annoyed is another matter.

“Ah.”

He tried to swing his arm to drive him away, but a terrible void was felt in that place.

…His arm had already been torn off.

Since he had shown a ridiculous appearance, he thought he would be mocked, but.

“Do you have any last words?”

For the first time, he asked calmly, having completely removed any trace of a smile.

Last words, huh.

He had never thought about it.

However, there is something he wants to ask.

“What’s your name?”

“Didn’t I just tell you?”

“I don’t remember.”

“You’re a goldfish.”

What is a goldfish again?

He didn’t know the meaning, but he was sure it was another taunt.

Whether his eyes were open or closed.

His gaze was directed towards him, but he couldn’t tell if he was really looking.

The man, looking at the fallen Krok, said softly.

“My name is Owen.”

“Yes… Owen…”

The final adversary who marked his end.

The squinting man who toyed with him every moment, but spoke seriously at the end.

Krok smiled and left his final words.

“Go to hell. You son of a bitch.”

An ugly and despicable life.

It was a consistent life until the very end.

***

The streets were lined with corpses.

Oliver’s and Bank’s gang members looked at the fallen Jackal gang members and were silent.

“It’s over!”

It’s an overwhelming result.

Flamberge, covered in blood all over his body, looked quite serious at first glance, but the reality was different.

He was covered in blood without a single wound.

Not even a single attack reached him.

“What is this…?”

At that sight, Oliver muttered blankly.

Just a moment ago, he had braced himself for death.

The sight of everyone charging while shrouded in demonic energy was enough to make him harbor such thoughts.

But, just one person.

Since Flamberge’s appearance, everything had changed.

Flamberge, rushing while swinging his spear so fast he couldn’t be seen.

Dozens fall with a single swing.

Five are pierced with a single thrust.

The Jackal gang members, who had been moving as if the feeling of fear had disappeared, began screaming and running away at some point.

No matter how deranged they were, the survival instinct existing within them.

Demonic energy could not control even that.

-Tap -Tap -Tap

As everyone silently looked at the gruesome traces, the sound of someone running was heard from afar.

A beautiful woman with red hair fluttering, gasping for breath.

Mirnan looked at Flamberge, covered in blood, and shouted loudly.

“Where’s Owen?!”

Owen, who had left saying he’d be back shortly.

She thought he had gone towards Flamberge, but his figure was nowhere to be seen.

A foreboding thought arose, and she looked around, but he still wasn’t there.

Flamberge, who had been gazing at that sight, said to Mirnan.

“He went to the Jackal’s headquarters!!”

“Why… aren’t you following him!!”

Mirnan tried to strike Flamberge’s back of the head, but he lightly dodged it.

Her appearance, huffing and puffing and expressing anger.

Flamberge expressed confusion.

“Is there a problem with that?”

“Demonic energy is overflowing!!”

The Jackal’s gang members were eroded by demonic energy, and their leader, Krok, was nowhere to be seen.

If so, it must have been Krok who made a contract with a demon, and it was an obvious fact that Owen, who went to the headquarters alone, would be in danger.

“Hmm!!”

Despite Mirnan’s cry, Flamberge remained still.

Mirnan, becoming frustrated, tried to run towards the Jackal’s hideout, but-

-Grab

“I recommend not going!”

Flamberge grabbed her arm and stopped her.

She certainly thought he was close to Owen.

Mirnan became angry at the sight of him doing nothing even though Owen might be in danger.

-Grind!

She couldn’t shake him off with strength.

But-

“If you don’t let go of that hand… I’ll kill you.”

She glared at Flamberge with eyes full of killing intent.

Despite such a gaze, Flamberge didn’t care at all and shouted heartily.

“Unfortunately, it seems impossible!!”

“Let go!!”

She resisted by scratching and biting his arm, but couldn’t even leave a scratch.

After enduring Mirnan’s sharp attacks for a while, she seemed to lose strength and stopped attacking.

-Drip -Drip

Instead, only thick tears fell down her cheeks.

“Please… let go…”

“Owen will be fine.”

Flamberge looked at the crying Mirnan and said calmly.

“Because I challenged him forty-nine times, but never won even once.”

***

“Alright, is it your turn next?”

“……”

The underground containment facility, which had maintained its intact form, was now in tatters.

A duel between a mage and a warrior.

At the end of it, the one who claimed victory was the mage.

“…Is he dead?”

Krok, into whom he had been injecting power, had become a cold corpse.

Although Krok, who was supposed to keep sending souls, was dead, annoyance or anger did not arise within him.

He was just consumed by one thought.

‘I must catch that guy and find out.’

Since he had read Krok’s memories, he roughly knew the information about him.

He was someone who spoke in an annoying tone and displayed efficient and clean magic.

But he didn’t know how to handle demonic energy.

And he didn’t know how to transform demonic energy into mana.

The reason demons cannot operate in the mortal realm for long in the first place is due to the presence of mana.

Just as demonic energy is antagonistic to humans, mana is antagonistic to demons.

But that strange phenomenon Owen displayed.

If only he could figure it out, he would be able to operate freely in the mortal realm.

Gadrak, whose thoughts reached that point, asked in a gentle voice.

“How did you do that?”

“What are you referring to? It’s hard to understand when you omit the subject.”

“I mean transforming demonic energy.”

At those words, Owen clapped his hands and opened his mouth.

“I’m doing it for the first time too, you see. So I don’t really know? Haha.”

“Yes, so that’s how it is.”

He didn’t expect him to say it easily.

If so, there is only one course of action to take.

-Swoosh

The hole gradually widened, and a powerful pull was generated.

If he crossed from the demon realm to the mortal realm, he couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t meet a similar end to Krok.

If so-

It would be enough to just drag him to the demon realm.

-Creak!

The underground where piles of stones were falling.

A powerful pull occurred, accelerating the speed of collapse.

Gadrak, who was staying in another world, didn’t care at all, but-

“Hmm…”

The people lying collapsed without strength in the prison.

If he wasn’t careful, they might all be buried under the piles of stones.

“Can’t be helped.”

Their souls were sucked out and they were empty, but their physical activity was normal.

Like pulse or respiration.

Owen, looking at the piles of stones falling on them, relaxed his body against the pull.

-Whoosh

Owen’s body lingered in the air and was sucked in.

-Zip!

Immediately, he completely crossed over beyond the hole.

-Blink -Blink

Gadrak, who was watching that sight, tried to smile basely, but immediately expressed doubt at the strange phenomenon that unfolded.

Blue sky, and white clouds.

“……What?”

The landscape of the demon realm originally possesses redness.

A world where barren land and fishy yet bitter air lingers.

It was absolutely not this kind of landscape.

Looking around, the space within a radius of several hundred meters from where he was standing was dyed blue.

The redness pushing back the blue light from far away and rushing back in.

The red light of the demon realm unfolds due to dense demonic energy.

Therefore, the scene of the blue sky unfolding here.

What this phenomenon means is that the demonic energy has disappeared along with the space.

At that moment-

-Chill!

A grotesque shiver went up Gadrak’s spine.

“…It’s been a long time.”

He lowered his head and saw the squinting man he had pulled over.

However… his aura and atmosphere had changed so much that he couldn’t believe it was the same person.

-Shlurrrp

The long, bone-deep lacerations tangled together and regained their original form, and even the torn clothes began to mend.

“Ah ah-”

Wind blows.

An presence resonating throughout the demon realm is scattered widely on the wind.

-Rumble!!

The ground trembles.

At the presence of the returned king, the demon realm was trembling with joy.

He touched the ground and felt the flow, then stood up and looked at Gadrak.

-Swoosh

Ominous eyes hidden within his squinting gaze held light.

Golden eyes slit like a snake’s.

The previously light atmosphere settled heavily, and a colossal presence overwhelmed the space.

Just once. He had felt this level of energy before.

‘Lord Diabolos.’

His master, one of the seven kings of the demon realm, who is currently asleep but for whom he struggles to awaken.

Gadrak knelt in the sinister demonic energy comparable to his.

-Tremble

His body trembled, and he should have uttered something, but his mouth wouldn’t move.

Should I open my mouth? No. Absolutely not.

Sinister demonic energy that felt like it was stabbing his entire body, shredding it.

In the storm of demonic energy that was overwhelming even for a demon, Owen opened his mouth chillingly.

“Your name is-”

Even his voice was so different.

The lively yet thin voice had disappeared, and a heavy yet stern sound filled his mind.

Gadrak trembled and replied with difficulty.

“……It’s Gadrak.”

“Gadrak.”

“Yes…”

“You’re a subordinate of Diabolos.”

The name of one of the seven kings of the demon realm. He called it without hesitation, as if they were acquaintances.

The only one who possessed such sinister demonic energy and could say such a thing.

Only then did Gadrak realize who he had summoned.

“Deception-”

One of the seven kings who reigned over the demon realm.

Long ago, [Deception], who had disappeared, had returned to the demon realm.